New coach comes in, averages less than a point per game while benching their most productive midfielder: "You see, it's the boy's fault, he doesn't work hard enough."
Year in Review (all stats are in the league because including cups is too much work) Nuno Tavares - 5 starts and 3 sub appearances for Forest. Did not improve his transfer value after a promising loan in south France last season. Has 2 years left on his contract. Albert Sambi Lokonga - Started 16 and subbed once for Luton. Had some injury issues, but kind of a status quo loan. Contracted thru 2026. Marquinos - Still on loan at Fluminense until January where he's been playing regularly at RM and interestingly RB where he is opposite 36yo Marcelo at LB. Signed thru 2027, but Fluminense have an option to buy. Kieran Tierney - Started 13 and subbed in 6 times while playin the Scotland of Spain. No prizes for guessing that it was an injury-plagued season, missing action 11 times. Still signed thru 2026. Runar Alex Runarsson - Loan ended and made a permanent move to Denmark Catalin Cirjan - 7 starts, 9 sub appearances but was left on the bench for the final 8 matches for Rapid Bucharest. Signed thru 2025. Mika Biereth - Started all 15 after joining Sturm Graz but after a good start, only finished with 5 goals. Transfermarkt doesn't have his contract status at Arsenal. Charlie Patino - 14 starts but none after Jan 1st. 19 sub appearances after a coaching change at Swansea hurt him. Widely expected to leave in the summer. Brooke Norton-Cuffy - 25 starts and 15 sub appearances for Millwall. 2nd productive season in the Championship and he's still only 20. Transfermarkt doesn't have his contract status either. Salah-Eddin Oulad M'Hand - Came on at the end of the season, finished with 14 starts and 5 sub appearances. But its the Dutch 2nd division. Signed thru 2025. Tyreece John-Jules - Only 2 starts and 10 subs while missing 28 games due to injury at Derby. Tough luck, but he's now 23 and you have to assume he moves on. Liam Francis-Jones - Struggled with injuries only making 12 appearances with 4 starts for AFC Richmond. No contract info on transfermarkt, probably because I made him up. Nathan Butler-Oyedeji - Recalled from Cheltenham Town in January and played regularly for the u21s Henry Jeffcott - Recalled from Derby in January Omar Rekik - Left Wigan to join Swiss side Servette in January. But he hasn't played there and Transfermarkt says he is ineligible until July 1 due to cross-competition. Weird one. Servette have an option to buy, assuming he's gone. Mauro Bandeira - Recalled from Colchester United in January. Arthur Okonkwo - Did well at Wrexham despite a broken jaw. He allowed Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney to explain how loans work on their TV show by comparing him to Michael Jordan. Expected to leave the club in the summer. Alex Kirk - Slow start but ended up making 19 starts at CB in the 2nd half of the season at Bromley. Kido Taylor-Hart - Played less than his teammate Kirk at Bromley and will leave Arsenal this summer. Billy Vigar - 27 starts, but less towards the end, playing in the 6th tier. Zane Monlouis - Joined Reading on loan in January, made one 5 minute sub appearance, and returned to Arsenal in April Khayon Edwards - Joined Leyton Orient in January, made 4 starts and 3 subs and as a striker, did not score in 316 minutes. Charles Sagoe Jr - Joined Patino at Swansea in January and played even less, 2 sub appearances totaling 25 minutes. Maybe don't send players on loan to Swansea.
At least while the current coach is in charge. Patino was doing quite well before the coaching change. Re Sambi, the Luton coach has publicly praised him, so I don’t know if I’d call it a status quo loan. I suspect he has raised his transfer value.
Maybe if Luton stayed up, I don't see them making Sambi their club record fee while they drop to the Championship.
Finally got around to this episode of Welcome to Wrexham last night. I'm not even sure who this explanation of how loans work was for. If that's the level of understanding Rob and Ryan have of how loans work and what they had in Okonkwo, then they need to continue to leave the transfer decisions to the people who've been making them. I actually think they've been smart about that so far, not getting involved in football decisions. But you can't refer to Okonkwo as a Premier League player simply because he's on loan from Arsenal. That seems a bit uninformed but also comes across as disingenuous, given they discussed him in the context of other players who actually played in the Premier League.
"Technically" he is a Premier League player, as his parent club is an EPL club, but its very very misleading since he has no senior caps for us and has only played in the u21s and u18s. Its drawing a very very low bow. Hopefully they didn't word it as saying "he has Premier League experience" because he wouldn't have it besides occasionally training with the firsts team during preseason, if at all.
It's hard to tell at times if they are trying to dumb it down as much as possible for those who know nothing about UK football or if they are genuinely naive about all this. Ryan Reynolds has a handful of (I assume) fairly successful businesses, he would be smarter than the Clearlake boys if he hires good people and gets out of their way.
Haven’t watched the show, so take it as you will, it sounds like you’re describing pretty standard audience-surrogacy.
Shaun Harvey held upper management positions at Leeds and a few other clubs. Reynolds and Mac have definitely hired people with football experience---they're not being Todd.